Understanding: Ray Tracing Technology - What It Is and Should You Buy an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Video Card
If you closely follow the news from the world of video games, you will notice that Ray tracing technology is being advertised more and more often, which is predicted to revolution in game graphics. The trend has been successfully picked up by Nvidia, which has decided to release a new series of RTX graphics cards specifically designed to handle the promising technology. We decided to tell you what Ray tracing is and whether it is worth buying Nvidia RTX graphics cards because of this technology. Ray tracing, or "ray tracing" in USA, is not a new technology, since the advent of video cards on DirectX 10 it was predicted that the innovation would be widely used in all video games. But more than 10 years have passed and only now Ray tracing is beginning to be actively used in the gaming industry. What is the reason? Everything is simple - the technology is brutally demanding on the computer hardware. offers an innovative approach to lighting in video games.  Today, all computer games use the classic rendering method - rasterization, which, with the help of shaders, converts pixels into shadows, glare, rays of the sun (God rays) and reflections - in general, everything that we used to define as lighting in games. Ray Tracing is an order of magnitude more difficult and generates millions of sun rays in real time, which, when interacting with objects, are refracted and reflected. Simply put - ray tracing does not just simulate (as in the case of rasterization), but recreates the lighting as we see it in real life. When using ray tracing, a special algorithm determines exactly how the light ray touches objects and, taking into account their characteristics, decides how the ray should be refracted - change color, reflect from other objects and cast a realistic shadow. Of course, the number of computer calculations when processing Ray Tracing technology increases many times over, which is reflected in increased system requirements. Instead, we get a more realistic picture. True, about how much technology improves graphics is an open question. Below you can see a special Ray Tracing Demo to see if the extra costs for next-generation lighting are worth it. The picture is impressive, but we have to admit that the technology demos from Nvidia are an advertising benchmark that does not reflect what the projects using ray tracing will actually look like. Therefore, let's look at Ray tracing technology using the example of a computer game.   As you can see, with ray tracing the shadows become much more realistic and softer. Just as they should be in reality. Which games support Ray TracingThe list of projects that support realistic lighting technology is not very extensive yet, but will be updated over time. It is also worth noting that Ray Tracing technology also means DLSS. This technology is not directly related to lighting, but it can make the picture more realistic thanks to improved anti-aliasing at the edges of objects, moreover, without sacrificing performance.  Games that support Ray Tracing and DLSS:
DLSS-enabled games:
Should you buy Nvidia RTX graphics cards?Since the RTX series graphics cards run on the Turing architecture, compared to the GTX series graphics cards, they are much better at handling games that use Ray tracing technology. In the diagram below, you can see that when using ray tracing, the RTX 2080 Ti outperforms the GTX 1080 Ti by 100%. If the latest technology is not applied, then the performance gain in games is on average about 40%.  As you can see, the frame rate boost is really good, but only the price of the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti is depressing - 100,000 rubles, so at this stage it is recommended to purchase a video card only for experienced gamers. We still advise you to wait for discounts on the video card, just in time for the discounts game developers may learn to use Ray tracing technology more clearly. Also, wait for the first major game to support ray tracing - Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is scheduled for release on September 14 of that year. The Topic of Article: Understanding: Ray Tracing Technology - What It Is and Should You Buy an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Video Card. |
